Improvement in apparatus for embossing bonnets and hats



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HIRAM E. l/VEST, OF ATTLEBOROUGH, ASSIGNOR TO ERASTUS P. CARPENTER, OF FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATUS FOR EMBOSSING BONNETS AND HATS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 49,049, dated July 25, 1865.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, HIRAM E. WEST, ofAttleborough, in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture ot' Bonnets, Hats, and other Articles, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a side elevation of a machine for pressing bonnets, hats, &c., with my improved embossing-die applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a view ofthe embossing-die detached.

In the ordinary operation of pressing bonnets, hats, &c., it is customary to place the article upon a block and press it into a mold ot' 'corresponding form; and when it is desired to emboss any particular design upon the article such design is engraved upon the inside ofthe mold, and ou pressure being applied the impression is t1 ansferred to the article; but owing to the frequent changes required in the design or pattern to be embossed it has been necessary to remove the mold and employ oneprovided with a ditt'erent pattern, and consequently these changes were attended with considerable expense.

The object of my invention isto overcome thc above-mentioned difficulty; and it consists in the employment of removable dies or patterns which are placed over or under the bonnet or other article, which is then pressed between the block and the mold, the outer surface of the block or the inner surface of the mold being covered with an elastic or yielding material which forcibly presses the article into the openings or depressions in the pattern or die, thereby producing a. fac-simile impression.

To enable others skilled in the art to understand and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the manner in which it is carried out.

In Fig. l of the said drawings isrepresented a bonnet-pressing machine, the mold A of which is made ofa form corresponding to that of the block B on which the bonnet rests. Overthe bonnet is placed a die or pattern, a, ot' metal, pasteboard, or other suitable mateiial, provided with diamond-shaped apertures b. This die c is made ot' the size and conformation ot' the block B, whose outer surt'aceis covered with an elastic material which, on pressure being applied in the ordinary manner, adapts itself exactly to the form ot' the mold, thereby shaping the bonnet and causing the'design of Athe pattern 'a to be embossed thereon at one operation.

The die a., instead of covering the whole ot' the bonnet, may be made ot' a size sufcieutto cover only a portion of the bonnet, and may be furnished with any required design,andthe design may be cutpartiallyinstead ofentirely through the pattern, as shown.

Instead of the dieor pattern c being placed over the bonnet, as represented, it may be placed under it, in which case the interior surface'ofthe mold is formed ofa yielding or elastic material, while the block B is made solid and of an intlexible nature.

It will thus be seen that by the employment of dies made removable, as described, the cost ot' embossing is reduced materially, while much time and labor are economized.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, as an improvement in the man nfacture of bonnets, hats, caps,

85o., is-

The removable die for embossing, substantially as set t'orth.

HIRAM E. WEST.

Witnesses:

P. E. TEscHEM/ionnn, N. W. STEARNS. 

